The Primal Hunter

To kick or not to kick. That is the question.

Well, alright, it wasn’t really a question but just Jake’s default way of handling any opponent he met in the arena. He knew full well that the situation couldn’t continue forever, but for now, his stats just outmatched everyone else by quite a margin.

It quickly became apparent that most of his opponents didn’t even have 10 in all stats, much less 16 in even their lowest, like Jake. This meant Jake thoroughly beat any and all opponents he met just by easily overpowering them. He was – metaphorically speaking - an adult professional fighter beating up a bunch of kids to quickly advance in ranks. If simply skipping ranks was possible, he would have gone for that, and on the third day, Jake even tried to ask the Battlemaster if it was possible to meet some higher-ranked opponent for a promotion match. To which the middle-aged man answered in a totally not judgemental tone:

“Oh, I am sure you would want that. Hey, do you think anyone else here wants the same? You’re confident, so surely that is enough, right? What complaints could your opponent possibly have for getting matched with some low-rank opponent who doesn’t even pull in a good audience? Surely, the fight itself would also go without a hitch, and with a victory, there would to so much glory in beating someone several ranks below yourself. And who would possibly feel humiliated if they lost to someone expected to be so much weaker than themselves? Yeah, definitely no one, so let me do you a favor here and now and change the centuries-old rules of the Colosseum just because you don’t feel like advancing the usual way! Who needs proper rules and a ranking system anyway? So old-fashioned. Having everyone fight everyone would be so much more exci-“

Jake cut him off after that, having gotten the point. The Battlemaster was a bit short with him the rest of the day after that, but luckily he was back to normal the next morning. However, during his first match on the fourth day, he found himself in an odd situation.

Standing ready behind the lowering gate, Jake looked at his beastkin opponent. She was a woman who was nearly two meters tall and had metal claws strapped to her hands. She definitely looked menacing and ready to pounce.

“Combatants, enter the arena!”

The moment the gate lowered, he walked forward as his opponent charged, yelling loudly:

“Heard you’re good at kicking! Let’s see you kick my claws, you pathetic human!”

With an annoyed frown, Jake looked at her and decided to get the fight over with right away. He even felt a surge of killing intent due to her comment as he considered employing the secret technique known as the dropkick. His eyes met with hers… and then things got weird. Right as their eyes met, she came to an abrupt stop and jumped back with wide eyes, hair standing up on her back.

Jake stood confused as she stared at him for a moment. Her sneer was gone, and her form lowered as she slowly backed away, looking perplexed. Jake took a step forward, making her jump back as she yelled loudly.

“I surrender!”

Wait, what?

More confused than before, he wanted to ask the beastkin what the hell was going on… but before he even properly registered that the fight was over, she had run out of the arena faster than she had arrived. Jake had no idea what was going on initially… until he got an idea.

In the next fight, he tested his theory.

Jake considered something he hadn’t really thought much of for a long time. Everyone had an instinct; he knew that. It was natural, and while the enlightened races tended to have weaker ones than beasts, it was still there, with beastkin often having instincts often comparable to or even surpassing some beasts. Why did this matter?

control materialized was his presence always leaking slightly. He learned to hide it pretty quickly, though, as it was a dead giveaway that he had a Bloodline due to its peculiar effects. This leakage of presence back then didn’t really have any major impact under normal circumstances, as it was pretty normal

several beasts avoiding him during the Tutorial. Raptors began to steer clear of him when they felt his aura and ran on sight. Even after coming back from

one tended to naturally learn just by being in the, well, presence of other living beings. After reaching higher grades, Jake couldn’t use his presence to directly pressure anyone around his own level of power without using Pride of the Malefic Viper, even if he had a powerful Bloodline. Not because it was less powerful than before but because people had learned to resist it. The only way he could have turned his Bloodline-empowered presence into an actual attack would have

also use it to train others to resist presences faster, but he

between the real world and the arena. Firstly, they were all level 0, as far as he could tell. They didn’t have any

Bloodline. The instinctual response it instilled in anyone who

intent. He even infused mana into it right as the match began, scaring

as hard but focused on only one aspect of his presence: Suppression. No, calling it suppressing was wrong. It wasn’t quite the concept

Fear.

of a predator. The fear any human would experience when confronted with a bear or a lion before the system. It was the kind of fear that solicited a response from his foe. One that triggered

her, she didn’t retreat. No, she chose to fight. However, she was unable to keep calm and lost her cool as her instincts took over, making her decide to charge while yelling, earning her

work on something else. Because he did

the Apex

looking directly at his opponent’s souls. More accurately, he directly attacked their Soulshapes through an ocular connection, which was also why he needed visual contact. How exactly this concept worked, he wasn’t sure, especially not

effectively identical, and in both grades, it barely took any energy. In fact, it took a proportionally

using Gaze… but who is to say he couldn’t? Based on the description,

gaze reflected in the eyes

had come from the fusion of Hunter’s Sight and Gaze of the Apex Predator. Jake earlier considered how he infused instinctive fear into his opponents… much akin to an Apex Predator. Which was exactly how the skill worked before the

single glance, a fallen prey. The Apex Predator has grown to where their foes

that was probably far weaker but had some of the same concepts, at least. This was also one of the purposes of the Challenge Dungeon based on Jake’s estimations; to allow the ones doing it to truly reflect upon their paths and skills. Gaze was a prime candidate for some kind of improvements, too, especially when one considered how core it was to his Path by

Many fights still ended with him kicking his foe either because he failed or because the person resisted the fear effect. Sometimes it also just made them mad. Which did make it clear that even if he did succeed, it

his six matches a day – five regular fights and one promotion

Fighter by now and had spent some time checking out other areas of the Colosseum with all the downtime he had. After becoming a Fighter, he had even gained access to

Jake was beginning to feel the pressure by now. In the last two matches, he had to use dozens of kicks to achieve victory, and he even ended

this promotion match would be the end of his kicking-only spree. At this point, he continued just

he quickly

Be promoted from

Journeyman

Colosseum Points: 765